Desert Flower [Wüstenblume]An Interview with Liya Kebede
Posted by Wilson Morales
March 16, 2011
Coming out this week is the inspirational film, ‘Desert Flower,’ starring Ethiopian model Liya Kebede, Sally Hawkins, Craig Parkinson, Meera Syal, Anthony Mackie, Juliet Stevenson, and Timothy Spall.
Directed by Sherry Horman and based on the international best-selling novel of the same name by Waris Dirie, ‘Desert Flower’ tells Dirie’s amazing, heartbreaking, and inspirational story from a nomadic goat-herding family to one of the world’s most sought after supermodels and then to a United Nations Spokeswoman.
Born into poverty in Somalia, Dirie at age 13 fled her impending forced marriage by walking days across the Northeast African desert to Somalia’s capital where her relatives aided her escape by putting her on a plane to London. There, arose her fear of returning home this time to a war-torn Somalia when the Embassy she worked as a maid was shutting down. So Dirie, homeless and illiterate, takes a job at a fast-food restaurant where she is discovered one day by modeling, star photographer, Terry Donaldson. After her rise to fame, and ever burdened by a violent, childhood secret, she gave an interview in which she spoke of her female genital mutilation (FGM) at the age of five. Her openness unleashed a wave of sympathy and controversy in which she decided to dedicate her life fighting against and educating about this horrifying practice. Now a United Nations Spokeswoman against FGM, Waris Dirie travels the world to speak out against this brutal and often life-threatening practice, ensuring autonomy for young women and girls all over the world. Her books “Desert Flower,” “Desert Dawn,” “Desert Children” and “Letter To My Mother” became international bestsellers.
At a recent screening at Barnard College followed by a conversation with Karen Durbin, film reviewer for Elle magazine, actress and model Liya Kebede spoke about passion for this film and her work as ambassador for the World Health Organization. Here are excerpts from the interview.
How did your role in ‘Desert Flower’ come about? This is your first lead role and it’s huge. I think you’re on screen almost the entire time.
Liya Kebede: Well actually it’s an interesting story because the woman who cast me for ‘The Good Shepherd’ told me that she had heard through the grapevine about this incredible story about this woman (Waris Dirie). And she said to me “I really think you should look out for it because I think this could be kind of interesting for you. Actually at first, when she told me it’s a story about a model I thought I don’t want to do a story about a model. And she said “You should really look at it. It’s really interesting,” and I said “Okay, fine.” When I looked for it we found out they were actually casting in New York so I went in and I got the book and read her book for the first time. And I really didn’t know a lot about Waris when this project was happening. I had met Waris interestingly maybe seven years ago at an event that Iman had. She did this kind of party and we happened to be there and I saw her, she was all by herself, and I was with my husband, and she sort of gravitated to me and came. And we chatted and I was like wow, who is this woman. I was really blown away by her. And then we talked and then she left and I thought wow. And someone said “Well that’s Waris Dirie” and I said “I don’t know who Waris Dirie is.” So that was that and then fast forward now right before this film I found out there was a book on her life, there was an autobiography of her, and I read it and I was blown away by her story. It was the most incredible story I read. I learned so much, I was shocked, I was touched, I was inspired, I was awed by this young girl who to me is someone that we can all look up to because given the circumstances that she was given she sort of refused to be a victim of her circumstances and sort of decided she was going to lead the life she wanted and she was going to do what she thought was right and not what circumstances she had. I thought it was incredible, so then I went in for the audition.
The resemblance between the two of you is uncanny. You look different now but really you seem like almost identical beauties. Somalia and Ethiopia share a border; and the practice of female genital mutilation takes place in Ethiopia as well. Waris was a child of a nomad relationship with her father; and you grew up in Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa. How much class and education and how much difference does it makes for a girl to grow up in that way and can she avoid this practice?
LK: Yes, actually I think the solution to this problem is education in many ways. Yes, like you said, I grew up in Addis, which is totally different than growing up in the desert as a nomad. When we started shooting this film we first went to shoot all the African scenes, and we were in the desert and we were with nomads. It was incredible in the sense that I think we, not just for us the actors but also the whole crew and everybody, that feeling of who really Waris was and where she’s coming from and what it means to be from there. The air, the colors, and all of it, we just sort of took that all in. And for me it was really important to be there because it was a different environment, and to see where she came from was really important. I was even more impressed I think with her when I saw where she came from and when I was there than just even seeing it from outside and really seeing what she had to deal with on a day to day. And for her to avoid the trap that the other girls sort of have to fall into because they don’t really have other choices, it was really incredible for her to have the strength, almost this blind strength that she had to push her forward in her life. Unfortunately, the issue happens not just in Somalia, it happens also in Ethiopia and all different places, and it’s a cultural thing. I think when I was there what was really amazing was that we were shooting among people who most of the women who were with us were circumcised. A lot of the actresses were circumcised and we would sit and chat with them and everything. And what was interesting was they knew we were making this film, they knew we were sort of trying to change the way they saw the idea of what circumcision was, and they were really helpful, and they were wonderful. I think they sort of see it as a different thing. They’re living in their world and we’re living in another world, and until we’re there living their lives we can’t really understand what it means. For me I really understood then that they just need a choice. The girls just need another choice in life than the only choice that they have at this moment, which is marriage. And because that’s the only choice they have they fall into customs, if you will, as opposed to if they had a choice. If they were educated and if they were independent somewhat, earned their own money, these kinds of things would just go away.
Many of the countries where this practice takes place have laws against it but the laws don’t reach the people for whom this is so deeply ingrained. It isn’t seen as a bad thing, it’s seen as a good thing, and the women who practice it feel that. The girls who are subjected to, I just hate to use the word circumcision because I think it’s such a euphemism, but who are subjected to cutting are then made proud and fine and worthy. Was Waris Dirie on set very much?
LK: No, actually. Interestingly, I met Waris at the end of the film, the last day of our shoot. She was part of the process of casting but after that she sort of gave us the freedom to interpret the story, which was kind of incredible of her. I met her the last day and it was kind of interesting.
When she established her foundation, which specifically focuses on FGM, were you inspired at all by that when you decided to establish your foundation? It’s a big undertaking. It’s one thing to be the ambassador for the World Health Organization; it’s another to create your own entity. Can you talk a little bit about that.
LK: At that time I didn’t really know much about her so I wasn’t really aware of these things that she was doing.
When did you establish the foundation?
LK: First I became UN Goodwill Ambassador for WHO, and that was in 2005. And then about a year or so later I decided to start my foundation. I guess what I’m trying to do is try to raise awareness of the fact that a lot of women in third world countries don’t have access to clinics and doctors and hospitals and things like that, so one of the number one killers of women in most of Africa is childbirth.
How did you get your modeling career started?
LK: I actually started modeling in Ethiopia, because that’s where I grew up, and I started out by just doing little fashion shows for school, and I liked it so much that I started pursuing it.
Are there parts of your modeling career as an African woman that after hearing Waris’ story that you can identify with or that you specifically related to working on this project?
LK: It was interesting because with Waris we have a lot of things in common. I related to the fact that coming from East Africa both of us and coming to a Western country and getting into the fashion industry, all that I related to. Definitely we had different paths once we started in the fashion side of things. This is about in the 90s kind of, and so the fashion industry was different then. She was mostly based in London and then moved to America. But I think for her it was a vehicle I think to even bigger things that she’s accomplishing now. She’s doing incredible work with FGM and she’s creating a lot of awareness. She really was the first woman who ever talked about it. I remember in the scene with the journalist, and so many times I was asking myself how do you start this conversation? How do you open up to the whole world and talk about something so intimate that will haunt you for the rest of your life? This is something that haunts her. It’s always with her, it’s always something that people are going to ask her about; she has to deal with it all the time. She’s very courageous.
Since this is a story that you can relate to did you find it harder or easier as an actor to play the role to put in maybe your own improvisational elements? Or was it harder being closer to it and feeling more emotionally connected than some of the other acting experiences?
LK: For some reason the story really spoke to me. From reading the book I think I was completely drawn in and felt that I really wanted to be a part of that story. It was a wonderful project for me; it was a lot self discovery for myself as well. It was a wonderful gift.
Can you speak about your foundation and what it does, its goals, and where you work?
LK: We basically work on raising awareness of the fact that childbirth and pregnancy kill a lot of women in third world countries. We work mostly in Africa, because that’s where the worst situations are. Dying in childbirth is something that’s not new; it’s been going on for ages, and so it’s not something that people focus on, it’s not something that gets funded a lot, and it’s exactly for that reason that we are losing mothers all the time and we have kids with no mothers. We’re letting our mothers die, if you will, and what we try to do is try to raise awareness so that international donor communities can start focusing more on funding specifically maternal health, and local governments will also do the same thing. Because it’s a big problem that needs a bit solution it really has to do with increasing infrastructures and really building hospitals and training doctors and training skilled attendants and all of that, which really in the end will help everybody else. Obviously, if there are hospitals everybody will get help from it, but it’s just a bigger commitment so it’s a harder one for a lot of people to get into. So that’s what we do.
Would you explain what fistula is?
LK: Basically fistula happens to young girls mostly. It’s similar to this story. You see that young girls get married, they’re really young, they’re maybe 13, 14, and their first sexual experience ends up with them being pregnant. And when it’s time to deliver they’re really young and they’re really small. Mostly they’ve had malnutrition and everything so their bodies are quite small as well. But mostly what happens is the baby’s too big and cannot come out when the girl is in labor, and because she doesn’t have access to a hospital, she’s in her little hut and trying to deliver, and sometimes her labor goes on for days, which I can’t even imagine what that must feel like. I did epidural. And really in the end she delivers the baby because the baby dies and his skull collapses and is finally able to come out. I’m sorry I have to get all graphic, but that’s what happens. But the problem is not only does she have a dead child, because of all this pushing as well that she’s been doing there’s a tearing that happens in her body that then makes her incontinent for the rest of her life basically, and it’s horrible. Basically she’s leaking all the time, her husband probably divorces her, she becomes at outcast because she smells and nobody knows how to deal with it. Actually there’s a very simple surgery that fixes this. Not only does it fix it but then she can go on and have other children. Actually there are women who have fistula and who stay that way for 30 years, 40 years. There’s a hospital in Addis that fixes fistula women who come after 30 years of living this life and basically having not lived really, and come and get fixed and then go back. It’s a very sad situation, and all it takes is a C-section for this not to happen at all.
During filming which scene did you have the most fun with?
LK: The most fun I think was the me learning how to walk scene. I think we shot a long hour of it where we sort of really went wild with it. We had a lot of fun doing that scene. And I think the most difficult was the nude scene, the calendar scene. Just to be there and just so vulnerable. It was difficult.
Can you talk about your upcoming films, ‘Black Gold’ and ‘Le Marsuilami,’ the comedy with Gerard Depardieu.
LK: ‘Desert Flower’ opened in France last year, and so it’s a long awaited moment for us that it’s finally hitting the US. We’re looking forward to it coming out here and the release. So since then I’ve done this French film, ‘Le Marsuilami,’ it’s a comedy, and then ‘Black Gold,’ or ‘Black Thirst,’ we’re not really sure what the end title is going to be, which is more about 1930s Arabia type of story.
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